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Sunday, May 10, 2015

Pakistan was Created for Indian Muslims and not for Islam

May 10, 2015

By Saeed Qureshi

The
founder of Pakistan, Quaid-e- Azam Muhammad Ali Jinnah’s
fundamental principal of religious tolerance in the new state of Pakistan was
set aside by the opportunists and anarchist politicians who could not make a
constitution for a pretty long time.

The Pakistan's nomenclature emphasizes
Islamic Republic which even the Saudi Arabia as the bastion and birth place of
Islam does not use. It is the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and not the Islamic
Republic or the state of Medina which the fundamentalist Muslims and
radical religious parties want to create in Pakistan.

Quaid-e-Azam did
not want an orthodox religious state and that is why on August 11, 1947 in his
inaugural address to the first Constituent Assembly he categorically elucidated
that, “You may belong to any religion or caste or creed—that has nothing to do
with the business of the State. You will find that in course of time Hindus
would cease to be Hindus and Muslims would cease to be Muslims, not in the
religious sense, because that is the personal faith of each individual, but in
the political sense as citizens of the State”.

During
the struggle for an independent state for the Muslims in the Indian sub-continent, Jamaat-e-Islami opposed
its emergence tooth and nail under the leadership of its founder Maulana
Maudoodi who disdainfully dubbed Pakistan as “Na- Pakistan”. But after the
establishment of Pakistan on August 14, 1947, the JI and its arch
protagonists hastened to move the party’s headquarters lock stock and barrel, from
India to Pakistan. Their plan was to launch a vigorous
and unstinted campaign for an Islamic government in a country they
never wanted to come into being.

The Jamaat-Islami raised
the slogan “Pakistan Ka Matlib Kia, La Ilaha Allallah” or “The
purpose of Pakistan is that there is no other ruler than God”. Later in 1977
during the PNA's anti- Bhutto movement spearheaded mainly by the Islamic
parties, another motto “Nizam-e Mustafa” was coined that meant that the
“implementation of the “Governance system of Prophet Muhammad in Pakistan”. The
religious right groups have all along wanted to turn Pakistan into a theocratic
state under Sunni Shariah.

They
systemically resorted to strikes, sloganeering, pamphleteering, and public
and corner meetings and thus created the unremitting turmoil, chaos and unrest
in the society. With an army of committed youth from the educational
institutions, JI launched a movement to Islamize Pakistan. The
nationalists or the secularists were pushed back.

With the
onslaught of JI, the other religious outfits jumped into the fray for the
establishment of an orthodox caliphate in line with
their peculiar Islamic system. All these conservative religious outfits
plunged Pakistan into a turmoil and religious war that continues until now and
that culminated in the victory of the fundamentalist Islamic forces.

A secular
leader Zulfikar Ali Bhutto had to backtrack from his agenda of
secularism and a mandate to craft Pakistan as a modern state. When in dire
straits and in a bid to come out of that , he submitted to the dictates of the
religious groups by banning use of liquor, ban of night clubs and horse racing
the hallmarks of a free and modern society etc.

That was
a shameful volte-face of a leader who was looked upon as the architect of
a tolerant, egalitarian, democratic, modern state and proponent of a civil
society. Still he was not forgiven by the opposition and later had to pay the
price with his life at the hands of a fanatic dictator Ziaul-Haq who
submerged Pakistan into a sea of draconian Shariah laws which could be enforced
only in a society of the Middle Ages.

With this
background, I would raise and analyze the moot question. The question is: was
Pakistan fought for to protect Islam or to safeguards the political identity of
the Muslims of the subcontinent as a nation? If it were the question of
protecting and preserving Islam then should we imply that Islam was in danger
to be obliterated in the new state of Pakistan? If it was not in danger during
the British colonial rule, why it was perceived to be in jeopardy in a Muslim
majority state?

Unfortunately, Islam
has been painted by the religious preachers to be always in danger and suppressed
or wiped off by the religious adversaries? Islam as a religion is not confined
to Pakistan nor it ought to be exclusively Pakistan’s responsibility to protect
it. It has been there for 15 centuries and is practiced in more than fifty
Islamic and non- Islamic countries.

Has
Pakistan after the promulgation of Islamic Shariah, been cast in the mold of an
ideal and peaceful Islamic state? The answer to this question is emphatically
in negative. How long the Mullas and religious demagogues
keep be-fooling the people and crusading for enforcement of Islamic
Shariah which is already in place but has proven to be futile and out of sync
with the imperatives of the modern civil societies.

Pragmatically, is it not
prudent to separate religion and state? It would be rather rational to keep the
religious obligations confined to the individual practices? Pakistan can have
mosques, religious seminaries, an agreed religious code but no coercion or
sectarian strife.

The Islamization of
Pakistan led to the unhindered proliferation of militant groups, religious
seminaries, thousands of more mosques and millions
of Mullas rampaging and frightening the people in the name of wrath
of God. In the aftermath of involvement of Pakistan in Western prompted
anti-Soviet Union war, the element of religious militancy is now assailing
Pakistan through a crusade aimed at Islamizing this country.

The
religious sects in Islam have never converged on religious armistice or consensus
on one brand of Islam. As such the mayhem continues by such extremist militants
and various bands of Taliban as Al-Qaeda, Lashkar-e-Jhangvi and
other assortment of myopic religious marauders.

Now we
watch in Pakistan religious factions spawning a culture of organized crime through
serial killers, suicide bombers, mass murderers, and heartless barbarians. They
fearlessly resort to bashing of women, minority sects, bank
robberies, extortion of money and similar crimes against humanity and their own
countrymen. They have unleashed a reign of terror to force people to toe their
narrow religious ideologies factually far from the real Islam.

The
religious and sectarian discords in the Islamic state of Pakistan have been
destroying the unity of Muslims and debilitating Pakistan in all manners. In
India, primarily a Hindu majority state, the Sunnis and Shias and
other sects don’t indulge in sectarian feuds and killings of each other.

The
sectarian strife has not only divided the Pakistani society but also has
blocked its emergence as a modern egalitarian democratic state. As such the
enforcement of Islamic code destroyed the peace and harmony and undermined the
steady progress and prosperity of Pakistan.

The faith
is fundamentally safeguarded by the individuals and not by states. Countless
Islamic dynasties have perished in history but the faith was still carried on
by the faithful. It means the system of government hardly matters in promoting
a religion unless it is a rigid fanatic religious state. Had Pakistan pursued a
secular pattern with freedom of religion as we see in the United States and
other contemporary states; it would have flowered into religious pluralism and
peaceful sectarian coexistence.

The
oppression from the majority sects leads to anarchy and is negation of the
cosmopolitan articles of faith practiced by prophet of Islam and enshrined in
the Islamic teachings. Islam can be declared as a state religion but it should
not imply that others have to convert to Islam or live as lesser equals. The
example is that in India, the West Europe and America, the faith or sectarian
based clashes have seldom been witnessed. There may be Christians in majority
but they would not force others to convert to their religion.

Barring a
few countries including Indonesia, Malaysia, Tunisia, Morocco, Jordan, otherwise
in many Islamic societies, one of which is Pakistan, the religious fanatics
kill and brutalize the believers of other religions and denominations. In the
Middle East, particularly in Iraq and Syria, there has been a constant
antagonism between the two major Islamic sects namely Sunnis and Shias for
centuries. Have all the Shias perished or else Sunnis turned into
minority?

The
regional conflict between Saudi Arabia and Iran has torn the Muslims apart into
Arab and Ajam. Then which Muslim unity are we Muslims dreaming about? There
has never been religious tolerance in Islamic society barring 700 years secular
rule in Spain where Muslims, Jews and Christians lived together in peace and
mutual harmony.

Pakistan
can emerge as a vibrant modern state with a robust civil society if any
government can suppress the sectarian animosity and hatred; fetter the sway of
hordes of ignorant inciters from the pulpit. Additionally, the cults
promoting false sainthood, shamanism, grave worship, deities, spirits,
astrologists, psychic readers, fortune tellers, soothsayers, witch doctors,
mediums, and talisman and so on. I t might be tall order but it is
indispensable for the survival and solidarity of Pakistan and for the emergence
of a peaceful, progressive and enlightened civil society.

The writer is a senior
journalist, former editor of Diplomatic Times and a former diplomat.This and
other articles by the writer can also be read at his blog www.uprightopinion.com.

About Me

Columnist/Analyst/ Former Diplomat.
After obtaining my master’s degrees in Urdu and English literature from Punjab University, I started my career by teaching in a college. Thereafter, I had a stint in the diplomatic service of Pakistan. Finally I landed in journalism, an occupation that I am wedded to for over 20 years now.
I am a strong believer in a civil society and staunch opponent of exploitation in all forms.